Unfortunately I never made it because I was experiencing a bug with the autopilot in the 310 in MSFS. In a nutshell…at top of descent reduce the manifold pressure to approximately 18 to 19 inches for descent. Leave the prop and mixture alone. When you enter the traffic pattern or join an instrument approach, reduce the manifold pressure to 17.5 inches to maneuver with gear and flaps up. This should give you around 115 knots. When you are abeam the runway (in the pattern), or intersecting the glide path, put the gear down and flaps to 15 degrees (approach). Place the props in high rpm (full forward), slightly enriched the mixture (approximately to number three marked on the quadrant), and run your checklist. Once you have the runway made reduce throttle a bit to maintain blue line and as you cross the threshold you can slowly reduce throttle to idle, round out,and set her down. Hope this helps.
Landing gear components have always looked far too spindly to me, for the stresses they need to accommodate. And then toss in the occasional side load stresses. GA planes look especially spindly, but even on warbirds they don’t seem able to work as well as they do. And work well, they do! At any rate, you’re shattering my dream of owning the rakish 310 - even as an A&P. Suddenly the 140 or 170 seems so much more appealing :) This was a really good episode. And did I hear you correctly that you came up with the animation using PowerPoint? I guess I didn’t really know you could simulate motion in that program. Anyway, yours was quite good - it visually got your points across and that’s what matters. But I also think you did well with it. Nice work, Jason, and thank you for pointing out the Twin Cessna Flyer sight. I already got sucked into a few of the articles by owners and the costs of the parts and repairs they’ve had to pay. Ugh, depressing!
up lock hooks are for holding the gear solid during plus and minus g loading to keep strain off the push pull and twisting torque tubes while at high speed cruse
Can you help me locate a particular 310 crash? Chuck was a friend but I forget his last name. He was flying between Temple bar Arizona and back home to Van Nuys when he crashed during a winter storm into the mountains north of San Fernando Valley. I think it was between 1990 and 2000. Does that sound familiar? Thank you in advance. I was his aircraft mechanic back in the late 70s on his flying flying machine.
Hi Jim, the following N-numbers were fatal 310 crashes in California between 1990 ansd 2000: N5442A, N310HJ, N6780T, N310RR, and N711CG. Any of those ring a bell? The database doesn't list the deceased pilot's name.
If you get into mountains with strong winds, you sometimes need jet engines to avoid being slammed into a mountain. I can easily imagine a pilot who is heavily loaded or non turbocharged meeting his demise this way. To avoid it you need a large margin of caution. It would make a pilot look like a dummy crashing a perfectly good plane with cfit.
Question, What is the gauge to the right if moving GPS map that displays a plane with a moving red dot rotating around a plane? Is that some type of traffic advisory gauge? Or fuel indicator gauge
That is a stormscope...a.k.a. lightning detector. It shows the relative azimuth of lightning strikes and is also useful for trends, i.e. if the storm is getting worse or falling apart. Thanks for watching!
Excellent Review from a practical perspective. Lovely airplane did my Com+ IF in it years ago, nowadays EFIS appr plates on the ipad and VG's on the wings must be a dream to fly, Stay safe !
Nice job, bought my '66k in October & you're right, one expense after the other; but I sure enjoy flying her (fast) around TX. In the shop now for fuel selectors. But at the cost of 2/3 of a single it was hard to pass up.
Thank you Jason. You helped enlighten me on the airframe issues. I can see how those engine support beams are critical to maintain, as well as the engine support mounts that attach to the beams. Both carry much load and likely experience high cycle metal fatigue. Because of potential stress corrosion cracking and high cycle metal fatigue the engine support beams would need to be inspected at every annual at least. Solutions to these problems exist, if the FAA would allow them. As a structural engineer (stress analyst) , I would be thinking of ways to minimize or eliminate those potential problems. On the landing gear, replacing the torque tube with one having a thicker wall would reduce the torsional stress. That is not a major change in the original design, since just the inner diameter of the tube would be affected; but adding sufficient thickness could reduce the stress below the threshold for accumulating fatigue damage and reduce the stress peaks, resulting in infinite life. Would the FAA allow that? If you would like to discuss, contact me at markd@dunbareng.com. I would enjoy trying to solve some of the chronic 310 problems, as a 310 enthusiast. The 310 line was designed before much advancement in stress analysis of aero-structures was developed. I have several years of Space Shuttle engine experience.
Hello Jason, impressive presentation very accurate based on your research into the subject matter as far as the stall spin accidents can be summed up by saying most like twin engines when one engine fails. The remaining engine will only take you to the scene of the accident if you don’t roll it over on its back along the way.
I appreciate your attention to detail when it comes to keeping track of money. Honestly, it’s frightening since I have been shopping for 310s for a long time. I never keep track of my spending on my Mooney. If something breaks I just fix it. If it needs fuel, I top it off. Being 9yrs from retirement myself, I also know that I cannot afford a 310 when the cash flow slows down. So maybe I should be looking more into experimental aircraft and give up the multi engine dream.
Yeah now more than ever with inflation going the experimental route is more appealing than ever! Mooneys are a great certified option with their great fuel economy vs speed. Thanks!
All you have to due is run fuel test verse time for that a/,c; log it.every airplane is different; just be consistent with pwr settings you normally use.i aways land with hr flt time in my tanks,ues told card.
What do you do for a living I am curious since most of us in he $120k a yr range with little bills cant even afford a 1960 twin commanche. Seems most of you twin owners and nice singles are raking in $200-600k/salary.
Grapevine says over 65% of GA pilots over 60 are flying on expired or no medical and some how getting their buddy/CFI's to sign them off with no flight or doc check like so often in the 60's through 2009 and those CFI's should be found and credentials yanked. Same for AME Drs, 3x and lose your med license.. $$$ is no excuse. Stop drinking so much alcohol, smoking, eating junk, buying fancy cars, theres lots of things one can do to have the $ to stay on top and be not just current but proficient and safe too. No excuses. If the plane in the hangar or tiedown doesnt move in 60 days, you either sell it or use it or as many smaller Class D arpts are doing, collecting planes that dont move for a few yrs, and selling at silent auction, if owner doesnt respond and hangar checks abd log book check verified with flight software to see if planes have flown in last 60-90 days and if NO, vacate hangar. No plane in hangar or tie down??, vacate property. This needs to happen. Its high time GA avaiation waa cleaned up. Many arpts look trashy. Take out trash and it'll get better.
I hear GA pilots had better step it up on safety, awareness, training, etc or else the politicians are going to step in and do it for us with lots of new insane regs/rules. I believe after the Piper twin Comanche crash just 5 sec after TO could have been prevented. The 69 yr old pilot walked away but he should probably not fly. He lost his left engine and veered left over trees and made first contact with the ground when he had a open field amd no obstacles straight ahead on rwy heading. This is loss of control vmc engine out and training for this is done ONCE while earning the multi engine add-on. Seems many multi pilots forget how to treat an engine out and do not maintain directional control. Which ever engine quits if you dont have time to do your "indentify, verify, feather" you'll know because it'll pull to one side like a flat tire and it will require brisk full power on opposite engine and possibly full opposite rudder to the floor boards. Problem is once you have your multi add, you never get checked or evaluated again on multi flying anymore and that MUST change!. If you just have a private with multu add you need to keep your single and multi current, no excuses. The BFR/ aka FR are normally every 24 calendar months, that needs to be reduced or include a actual (mini checkride)- evaluation on a pass/fail and said license held up until a pass recieved, and the IPC instrument check needs to be done by a FAA examiner, not a CFi, and the 3 take offs & landings every 90 days needs to be 6-9 take off & landings every 45 days and if you have a multi add, use a multi to mert thst qual as well, every 60 days. There needs to be advanced weather taught to all too. And third class medicals for everyone under 45 every 3 yrs and over 50 every 1 yr and over 65 every 10 months. 2nd and 1st class are already good enough. Maybe those 45 to 65 should stick to 2nd class med standards. But either way folks, if the community doesnt step up, political override will come and it will hurt everyone. The heads of the FAA, NTSB, need to hace a aviation background either as pilots or operations, no excuses, and screw your politics, politics is the poison destroying the world, leave it at home or stay OUT of avaition.
If your a flatland pilot (non mountains), even on a warm day, no reason a maintained small twin can maintain at least 250 ft/min VMC. And many older pilots (65+) flying twins, should be with a second pilot/friend no matter the skills/hours/background.
Hi Jason, thanks for this video. I'm an airline pilot getting back into GA again. I'll be flying a 310R and was wondering if you produced that checklist yourself or is it available online somewhere? I'd love to get a copy. Thanks again.
Speaking of damaged engine beams, at 10:30 you can see where the phenolic exhaust fairing looks like it has worn a groove into that beam with primer sprayed over it. You are allowed only .006". The good news is, I went through this exact issue and repaired it with a DER designed doubler.
WELL HAVING A TWIN (weather your rich or not so rich) is great because of its safe operatios regarless you fly long or short distances. mark a&p mech retired united airlines as well as a 310(2 of them) owner.
Boy did I learn a lot about my Tri-Pacer after buying it and flying it from St. Louis back to Manvel and then learning improper prop which failed at the prop shop, right wing out of degree causing constant correction, different type spark plugs, loose fitting at the back of the airspeed causing the pouncing needle. Got her all tweaked out which I’m glad I put money aside expecting the amount of hardware replacement.
I 100% disagree with your prebuy statement. If it was me getting a prebuy, I want the complete airplane looked at. If that requires an annual, then so be it. It's a helluva lot cheaper to find out then, than to make the purchase based on a cursory (cheap) inspection. I don't expect it to be done on the cheap. I want the issues found so that I don't have a $ 30,000 annual later on. Heil !!
Thanks for the vid! When I first got into flying, I was advised to pay for an annual as a pre-buy inspection on any aircraft I was shopping. I said that seemed kind of steep, a $3k (at the time) inspection to see if I want the plane. Their reply? "$3k adds up on repairs to an airplane real fast." Always took that to heart.
Adding to your comments, just because an annual/pre-buy is done, doesn’t mean you’re done for a few years. I’ve had 2 expensive annuals (the first being the-buy), owing to the fact that what checks out good one year, may not the next time around. I’m keeping my fingers crossed I’ll see a reduction in annual maintenance $$ this next time, but I know these are like classic cars, and they’re not getting any younger. Yes it hurts. But I know I’ve done everything to ensure my passengers are safe.
